Thanks Living Challenge: Grounding and Anchoring

G’day, scrapbooking friends! Erika Hayes, moderator from Club CK here! I hope your day is going well. I am so excited to share this month’s Thanks Living design principle, and to extend an invitation to have you join us at Club CK, the free community for scrapbookers brought to you by Creating Keepsakes. This month I have excellent design principles to share: we will be investigating grounding and anchoring.

Ships have anchors to hold them to the place where the captain wants or needs the ship to be at rest. Whether at port or in the middle of the sea, the anchor is what holds the colossal ship or the little tugboat in place. The same is true within the elements of our layouts. Adding a grounding foundation and anchoring elements on a scrapbook layout can often create a finished look. These principles create a sense of resolve, care, association, and proportion in our work.

Grounding and Anchoring Defined

Grounding and anchoring sound similar, and in a sense they are, but there is a difference:

The Real You by Erika Hayes.

• Grounding is creating a foundation on which your entire layout rests. It is a place to attach your anchors. Think of it as the sea floor: grounding is the rock that holds the anchor in place.
• Anchoring is using a line, embellishment, or other part of your grounding to “hold down” individual elements, and gives purpose to the elements you add to reinforce your design.

When a layout is unanchored, it has a scattered, unfinished look. When you look at the sketch below, for example, you can see it has an unfinished look.

When grounding and anchors are added to the layout, it is much easier to follow the layout’s direction and a finished look is achieved.

Quick Ways to Ground:

• Color: Darker colors add more visual weight, so they are able to ground effectively.
• Repetition: Using repeating elements, repetition brings connection to the layout. As the reader registers the similar shapes, colors, and elements, they feel a sense of stability.
• Layers: Using layers of pattern paper, photos, or embellishments creates a base that you can begin to use to anchor your other elements. Layers of paper are the most commonly seen use of a grounding technique.

Quick Ways to Anchor:

• Lines: Using lines attached to your grounded elements.
• Repetition: Using your repeating elements to make connections to elements in your grounding area.
• Clusters: Weighted clusters of embellishments are a great way to anchor photos, titles, and journaling spots.
• Proximity: When elements are in close proximity to other anchored items, you can use colors or repetition (similar shapes) to draw an “invisible” line to anchor other elements.
• Literal: Using items such as photo corners, staples, twine or fibers, and other items that are meant to hold down items will create an anchor.

As the above techniques make clear, there are many, many ways to ground and anchor your layouts. On the layout below, for example, I grounded with dark colors and anchored with lines and repetition.

Broadway by Erika Hayes.

Be adventurous: titles, journaling, and all kinds of embellishments create great grounding and anchoring techniques for a layout. Next time you feel like jumping ship on a layout because it does not feel “done,” don’t—just check your grounding and your anchors.

Join us for the July 2012 Thanks Living challenge to show us how you use grounding and anchoring techniques on your layouts.

About the Thanks Living Challenge

The Thanks Living challenge is an ongoing yearlong challenge that you can begin at any time. Remember: if you are busy counting your blessings, you will lose track of your misfortunes!

If you have missed any of the Thanks Living challenges, you can find them all here:

• Introduction to Thanks Living
• Thanks Living Challenge #1 – Points and Lines
• Thanks Living Challenge #2 – Visual Hierarchy
• Thanks Living Challenge #3 – Layering and Clustering
• Thanks Living Challenge # 4 – Balance and Symmetry
• Thanks Living Challenge #5 – Odd Numbers
• Thanks Living Challenge #6 – Visual Triangles
  

—Erika Hayes, Club CK moderator

P.S. The summer 2012 conference of the Craft & Hobby Association takes place July 17–19, and scrapbook product manufacturers are revealing their new product! Watch the Creating Keepsakes Facebook page for new product updates as they come in.